North west match fishing scene

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With my wife coming home from work for the weekend i thought that i would take the opportunity to fish the open at Sycamore fishery , so after a few frantic phone calls i managed to get booked on but the owner told me that it was taking place on just Silver birch which is the worst of the match canals although the weds open was won with over 80lb from their but only 8 anglers was on each lake so they all had some room since today every peg was taken and i was expecting it to fish hard , i thought that a mid twenty pound weight would be enough for the win which worked out at about 5 fish an hour .

The weather recently had been pretty good with warm blue skies and a gentle breeze but the down side was the high pressure with cold nights although i wasnt sure the water had cooled down that much just yet , so i was at a bit of a quandary on how best to fish it today especially the depth of my near shelf rig and in the end i settled on 4ft the same as i fished on here last time .

As i arrived at the fishery there was plenty cars+people knocking about because their was two club matches taking place plus the open which goes to show how well thought after the venue is and i expect it to start producing some extremely big weights in the next few years if the fish growing at the same rate , in the days leading up to the match i had looked at some of my past blogs from here were you needed 50-60 fish for thirty pound required to frame but these days that amount of fish would get you around 80lb and surprisingly a lot of the same faces are still fishing it now .

After the draw my home for the day was unlucky for some peg thirteen but not for me as you will find out later , i was in what i felt would be the right area going from earlier match results and i was also on the main straight so no awkward corner pegs to contend with , this meant that i should have a reasonable match regarding tactics .

4ft deep near slope at three meters ,4×12 malmams benny float with 0.12 garbo line which has a spread bulk of number ten stotz and my hook was a size 18 guru lwg my elastic was red matrix .

2ft deep far slope at eleven meters , 4×10 malmams benny float with 0.12 garbo line which has a spread bulk of number 11 stotz and my hook was a size 18 guru lwg my elastic was orange matrix .

5ft deep in the channel to my right , 4×14 malmams speedy float which had a spread bulk of number nine stotz my line was 0.12 garbo with a size 18 guru lwg hook .

Bait was just ,

3 pints maggots

tub of sweet corn

As the all in sounded i started on my top three-line directly in front of me and began drip feeding maggots through a large kinder pot , it took about ten minutes to get my first indication and not long after it i had my first fish which was an f1 about 1lb not a bad start to the day , i felt that even in these match conditions i wasnt feeding heavy enough so i began loose feeding maggots every couple of minutes this produced a fe more f1s but it also brought them up of the deck and i began suffering from line bites-foul hooked fish in fact after i had fed if i counted to ten i would get an indication on my float so i changed to my two foot deep rig which was at half depth this resulted in just a solitary fish and a surprisingly lack of indications .

Because i was catching a few fish which was a lot better than those anglers around me i probably stayed on this line a bit to long and with seven fish in the first ninety minutes i took the opportunity to rest this line and went on my eleven meter 2ft deep rig where i had flicked maggots every five minutes so i expected an immediate response , the first drop resulted in a nice carp before a barbel muscled in on the action but this signaled the start of a series of missed and then a quiet spell which lasted over an hour .

My channel rig to my right where i had been big potting with maggots every thirty minutes for the opening two hours failed to produce a single bite and another look on my top three-line produced a few quick barbel before they disappeared just as quickly as they had turned up , my margin failed to produce a bite and a look on to my 11m line again only produced a couple of hard to hit indications . I decided to shallow the depth of this rig and long line towards the mud-bank on my first flick the float buried had i finally found some much sort after carp but no just a tench and a chub which was spewing up maggots a sure sign of no decent fish being in the area and i decided to scrap that idea going back to my original plan .

With ninety minutes of the match remaining i decided to go heavy with the maggots on my top three-line to try to force the issue ( shit or bust time) which would hopefully keep the fish on the deck and thankfully this worked a treat with this time a run of carp coming to the net but when i foul hooked one which i lost at the net my swim needed a rest , another ten minutes spent on all my other lines resulted in no indications but the time away from my three meter line had dome it the world of good with a couple more carp including one on the whistle was my reward .

I was unsure how i had got on but it had obviously fished hard with plenty people putting the nets out to dry not bothering to weigh in , the lad opposite me had caught a few and rumour came down the bank of some one doing well from the high numbered pegs . When the scales arrived to me i had 13lb to beat and my 18 fish went 22lb with the guy on the other bank putting 14lb on the scales so another win on Sycamore for me that’s twice in my last two visits and of course i have already booked on for next week when it is back on rowans but i have no doubt my good form will come to a crashing halt some time soon .

Overall it was a rather confusing match for me today with the top three-line being the most prolific catching eighty percent of my fish from their but they strangely seemed to come in groups of different species , by loose feeding maggots here it brought the fish up off the deck so may be big potting would have worked out better and I’m not sure about the hooks i was using either because i lifted into a few bites were the fish only stayed on for a few seconds and i also noticed my maggot bursting when hooking towards the end of the match signifying that it had become blunt .

I am surprised that none of my other lines really worked and i am just glad that i got away with it today , but at least it has given me a few things to think about before my next match which will be on Partridge lakes at the weekend .